One of the points I tried to make in my book titled “How to stand up to workplace bullying and take on an unjust employer” is that employees are not totally helpless when it comes to fighting back against bullying and harassment in the workplace. I do understand that fighting back can be stressful and many employees may just find it easier to simply quit and find another appropriate employment. Also, in some cases it is possible that the employee does not have any other opportunities available to him or her and decides to put up with the maltreatment. But there are times when fighting back is appropriate because of a couple of reasons:

1. The employers need to understand that it is their responsibility to maintain a positive workplace environment
2. The employers need to understand that there can be serious consequences if they fail to maintain a bully-free environment for the employees
3. And sometimes, it can be extremely helpful for one’s mental health to be able to fight back against unjust and oppressive behavior

However, in order to have any success in a fight of this nature, it is absolutely essential for the employees to maintain clear documentation which must include things like dates and times when bullying happened, if there were other witnesses, if the incidents were reported to the employer, if any actions were taken by the employer, if any response was received from the employer, etc. Without detailed notes of this nature, it will not be possible to fight against the employer since, in that case, it will just be one’s words against another’s.

In my situation, for example, the employer fired me thinking that every employer has the right to fire an employee. However, because of my detailed documentation I was able to demonstrate that there were good reasons to believe that it was wrongful termination. Without the documentation, it would have been very difficult to build a case against my employer.

Over the past few years, I have participated as a guest on a number of podcasts. I find this to be a very interesting and effective way to reach people all around the country. These podcasts allow discussions on various topics that could be of interest to a large number of people from various parts of the country.

The first one I did was for a podcast called “Determine Our Future”. We talked primarily about bullying in schools, and specifically about how school bullying can be racially motivated. I was able to provide many examples of racially motivated bullying that I had to deal with during my school years. We also discussed the fact that there are many other reasons that can prompt a bully to torment other children at schools.

The next one I did was for a podcast called “Puberty Prof”. This podcast focuses on discussions primarily for parents about various issues impacting teenagers. Here we talked about bullying and mental health, and the fact that many teens do not want to open up and discuss their mental health issues with their parents. Following many of my speeches at schools, I often received emails from teenagers who shared their mental health issues that they felt uncomfortable in sharing with their parents. We felt this was a very good discussion for any parents with young children.

The next one I did was for a podcast called “Anxiety Asset”. The focus here was on various anxiety disorders and specifically on the fact that anxiety disorders can also be an asset, especially if it can be kept under reasonable control. I found this very interesting – trying to look at the positive aspects of a mental health disorder.

I look forward to participating in more similar podcasts in the near future, with the possibility of communicating my messages to various different groups of people.

In my latest book titled “Minority viewpoint – my experience, as a person of color, with the American Justice System”, I have included discussions about the fact that people of color are at times not treated fairly in various situations. Some of those discussions are as follows:

I believe, albeit speculation, that some of the small town police were quicker to judge me poorly because of my race and color. Even the judge up north herself – who unlike the MN Court of Appeals judges attributed no fault at all to the hotel employee – might have been influenced by my race, color and ethnicity. 

The fate of being treated as different doesn’t appear to change over time. It seems to remain a heavy burden which we minority people must carry – in both big ways and small ways – day in and day out. Though I did not prevail in court, I am grateful that I was able to show everyone that there are folks who will stand up and fight for their rights honestly and ethically! Hopefully the hotel employee never again will commit such a similar kind of act.

The point of this lawsuit was to teach someone a lesson. Let us hope that the lesson was learned. I hope that my story will motivate others to fight for their rights as well.

Along with the blame on my defamer, the hotel employee, I am also tremendously ashamed of the person(s) in charge of running the Country Inn Hotel in Deerwood, Minnesota at the time of this lawsuit. And they too ought to be tremendously ashamed of themselves!!!

Whenever I speak to adults around the country about bullying and mental health, one of things I try to point out is that all adults and specifically parents have a significant role in eradicating bullying from schools.

First of all, parents really need to understand the possible devastating impact bullying can have on a person’s life. And then, it is very important for them not to downplay the impact being felt by their children. It is not appropriate to tell the children (who are being bullied) that “these things happen”, or “we just need to learn to accept it”, or “we need to learn to fight back”, or “just suck it up”, etc, etc. Instead it is very important for the kids to know that their parents totally understand what they are going through and are trying their best to support them.

The next thing they need to do is to try and work with the school staff to make sure the school is doing their utmost to stop this. Most schools these days have put together systems and processes to try to eliminate bullying. So parents should not hesitate at all to go to the school staff and tell them about what’s happening and ask them to try and stop the bullying. Most schools will likely cooperate and do their best to improve the situation.

Parents of children who are doing the bullying, also have a significant responsibility in this matter. If they find out (primarily from schools) that their child is acting out as a bully in the school, they should not just ignore the matter. They also should not just punish the child. In most cases the bully child is likely dealing with some other difficult issues in his or her own life and is acting out as a bully in school. It is necessary to talk to the child in a supportive manner to try and figure out what’s going on with him or her. And often, it might be very useful to get the child to see a therapist.

In summary, parents have a significant role in minimizing bullying in schools and they must do their part.

In my latest book titled “Minority viewpoint – my experience, as a person of color, with the American Justice System”, I have included discussions about the fact that people of color are at times not treated fairly in various situations. Some of those discussions are as follows:

Although it is all too often staring us in the face, we never like to focus on the issue of race and its possible role in such negative situations as the one in my true story. As mentioned in Chapter One, my status as a dark skinned ethnic minority has haunted me throughout the course of my life. With the epidemic of racism still rampant across America as of 2020, I know that stories like mine are far too commonplace.

Though I have no concrete proof to say that my race/color was a factor in the hotel employee’s mind, I certainly harbor my personal opinion that it played a role in her vindictive behavior. It doesn’t stretch the imagination to presume that the employee might have felt especially irked that a man of color had the gall to demand respect from her at the pool and then later to criticize her job performance in great detail to her employer. Clearly, her apparent dislike for me upon our very first interactions supports the idea that my race/color was a factor.

Though it may qualify as speculation, I do not feel I would have been treated nearly as poorly by this employee had I been white, as she was. One merely needs to look at her dislike upon first glimpse of me, her unprovoked rudeness, her questioning of the kids (instead of asking me as the paying adult guest), her behavior at the pool and then her false report months later to the Deerwood police. I felt treated as a second class citizen by her, right from the start and throughout. Common sense leads me to believe that she does not treat most other guests in these ways!

My book titled “How to stand up to workplace bullying and take on an unjust employer” describes a true story in order to provide useful guidance for both employees and employers. The main message is that a workplace can and should be peaceful and positive.

Bullying and harassment in a workplace simply cannot be tolerated. Any organization (large or small) hiring employees to work on their products and/or services, is responsible for providing a reasonable environment for the employee to do his or her job. In fact, it is important for the organization to provide an environment that is peaceful, positive and rewarding.

Everyone agrees that employees must receive appropriate feedback if their performance is not satisfactory. But the feedback does not have to be in the form of bullying and harassment. Any organization hiring employees must set up an appropriate performance management process. Even a small organization can set up a simple process that allows evaluating an employee’s performance and providing appropriate feedback with a development plan if needed. A process like that will allow the company to terminate an employee if performance does not improve over time. Employees typically cannot complain if they are aware that a process was followed. However, if a process does not exist, then it can lead to bullying and harassment.

Similarly supervision of employees is a critical task, but this too must not involve bullying and harassment. Most employees work better if directions and advice are given in a positive and encouraging manner. If employees do not respond to positive supervision, then the performance management process must be utilized. But there is no need of using bullying and harassing tactics.

Some people continue to believe that bullying is harmless fun that children grow out of rather quickly. Unfortunately these people do not simply understand the significant impact it can have on innocent children. It needs to stop.

Many school staff around the country and many parents still believe that bullying is really not a real problem in schools. They believe that maybe there are times when some children act meanly to others, but they don’t believe that it has any lasting impact on the children. They also believe that it’s okay for children to grow up having to deal with situations like this off and on. I would not disagree with them if it was true that in most cases these are just isolated incidents that happen once in a while with minor disruptions. What I know from my personal experience and from speaking with others all throughout the country, there are countless examples of bullying happening in hundreds of schools all over the country that often last for days, weeks, months or even years. Consistent incidents of bullying is what typically causes the most damage.

Most children are able to handle occasional mistreatments by other kids, but it gets extremely difficult for them to fend off consistent ongoing bullying. That is what makes it extremely stressful for victims and eventually results in mental health disorders for them. It is important for school staff (with cooperation from parents) to identify persistent bullying of this nature and work with everyone concerned to prevent it. It may not be possible or feasible to be able to detect each and every incident of mistreatment, but with a reasonable amount of effort, it should be possible to detect and prevent reoccurrence of bullying on a continuous basis. That is how the school staff can create and maintain a positive school environment.

Many Americans around the country have to seek out professional help from mental health providers to deal with the stress caused by bullying and harassment in the workplace. This needs to stop.

Most folks spend a major part of their daily life at work. Most of them are dedicated workers who take their jobs seriously and work hard to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. When they go home, they focus on their responsibilities at home and then try to find a bit of time for some relaxing activities. But if their time at work is filled with bullying and harassment from a manager or a supervisor or from other co-workers, then they are not able to focus on their responsibilities at home or a bit of time for relaxation. That is what causes stress for them, which could eventually turn into a mental health disorder.

It is true that for most people, some workdays are not stress-free. It is normal to have some stressful workdays off and on. But it is not a good situation if almost every day is a stressful day. Bullying and harassment in the workplace is often a pattern that continues on almost a daily basis. One can let go of things if it happened once in a while – but in many cases it typically happens several times a week (in some cases almost every workday) and that leads to the kind of continuous stress leading to mental health disorders.

It is important for all employers to understand that they have a responsibility to maintain an environment where all employees feel safe to focus on their work and not be stressed due to bullying and harassment. It is always appropriate to give necessary feedback to employees regarding their performance, but no one deserves to be bullied or harassed at work.

Bullying at schools often creates mental health issues for the victims and unfortunately in most of the cases that often goes undetected during the school years. And that causes delay in treatment.

It is very important for school staff to have adequate training in this area, i.e., to detect children dealing with more than usual amount of stress. When children get bullied at school, they show their stress in many different ways. If a school staff is well trained in this area, then they can figure out that something unusual is going on with these specific children and make sure that some appropriate intervention is happening. Typically all school staff including teachers, nurses, administrative staff should have some training so if they detect anything unusual about a child, they can immediately refer him or her to the school social worker or the school psychologist.

Children who get bullied at school often do not want to talk about it when they get home. Once they get off the school bus and enter their homes, they feel relaxed right away and do not want to discuss these negative school-related issues. They treat their homes as a sanctuary and feel that they can relax there stress-free until the next school day.

That is why early signs of problems are often not detected at their homes. Their parents can start seeing the problem typically at a later stage when things have progressed significantly further. The family members can see something only when the child is not able to contain his or her stress level. If this was detected earlier, then the child would receive appropriate treatment right away, when things are still at a mild stage. That is why it is important for school staff to detect this as soon as possible so the mental health issues do not progress to a more serious level.

It is important for all companies (big or small) to have an established process to deal with complaints from employees about bullying and harassment in the workplace. The process does not need to be elaborate, it just needs to be followed.

Having an established process makes it clear to everyone that the company takes this seriously. The process basically needs to include steps that will be taken if there is a complaint of bullying and harassment in the workplace. Some larger companies may have elaborate processes and procedures, but for smaller companies what is needed is just a set of steps describing what will be done if there is a complaint. The process would likely include steps such as documenting the complaint, interviewing the person who made the complaint, doing an appropriate investigation, preparing a closing summary with an action plan.

However, having a process is just the first step. Many companies do have a process, but they do not follow it sincerely. Following the process sincerely is the best way to ensure that the work environment will remain positive and rewarding. At times it may be difficult to come up with a definite conclusion, but if everyone knows that these steps will be followed, this will have a positive impact.

Employees need to feel that the company cares about everyone’s safety and wellbeing, and having an established process (and following it appropriately) is an excellent way to let employees know that the company is focused on maintaining a positive environment.